Ethnic Continuity in the Carpatho-Danubian Area
Elemér Illyés
First edition: East European Monographs, no. CCXLIX, 1988
Second (revised) edition: Hunyadi Öcs. MK., Hamilton, ON., Struktura Press, 1992
A multi-disciplinary study, with the main emphasis on linguistics.
Copyright © 1988 by Elemér Illyés
ISBN 0-88033-146-1
Contents
PREFACE . . . . . . . xi
ABBREVIATIONS . . . . . . . xiii
I. HISTORY
ABOUT THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE PEOPLES OF SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . 1
The Thracians . . . . . . . 3
The Scythians . . . . . . . 4
Moesia (Misia) . . . . . . . 4
ABOUT THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE ROMANIANS . . . . . . . 4
The First Written Sources About Early Vlachs. The Testimony of Byzantine Authors . . . . . . . 5
MEDIEVAL CHRONICLERS. THE RUSSIAN PRIMARY CHRONICLE. THE GESTA HUNGARORUM . . . . . . . 11
A Summary of the Gesta Hungarorum . . . . . . . 13
Ethnical Criteria in the Gesta Hungarorum and the Russian Primary Chronicle . . . . . . . 21
An Analysis of the Treatment of the Gesta Hungarorum as an Historical Source by Modern Romanian Historians . . . . . . . 24
Place Names Mentioned by Anonymus in Transylvania and the Banat . . . . . . . 30
THE HUMANISTS . . . . . . . 32
The Latinity of the Romanians . . . . . . . 32
Transylvanian German (Saxon) Historians of the Seventeenth to Eighteenth Centuries on the Origin of the Romanians . . . . . . . 35
v
vi
THE MOLDAVIAN AND THE WALLACHIAN CHRONICLERS . . . . . . . 37
The Origins and Development of the Idea of Roman Continuity North of the Danube . . . . . . . 37
THE ROOTS OF THE ROMANIAN NATIONAL AWAKENING . . . . . . . 41
The Development of the Theory of Continuity as a Political Tool . . . . . . . 45
The Transylvanian School (Şcoala Ardeleană) . . . . . . . 46
THE ROMANTIC WRITING OF HISTORY . . . . . . . 53
The Rise of Modern Nationalism in Europe . . . . . . . 53
Romanian Nationalism . . . . . . . 55
The Beginnings of Modern Romanian Historiography . . . . . . . 56
The Period Between the Two World Wars . . . . . . . 58
THE DOMINATION OF MARXIST IDEOLOGY . . . . . . . 60
The Period After the Second World War . . . . . . . 60
History and Ideology . . . . . . . 62
II. ARCHAEOLOGY
Methodological Problems . . . . . . . 67
The Roman Cultural Influence . . . . . . . 71
The Circulation of Roman Coins in Barbaricum . . . . . . . 75
The Role of Roman Coins in Free Germania and Other Territories Outside the Roman Empire . . . . . . . 76
THE QUESTION OF ROMANIZATION NORTH OF THE DANUBE . . . . . . . 78
Dacia . . . . . . . 78
Roman Influence Before 106 A.D. . . . . . . . 80
The Degree of Romanization in Dacia Traiana from 106 to 275 A.D. . . . . . . . 81
Towns and Rural Settlements in Dacia Traiana . . . . . . . 84
Dacian Settlements After the Conquest . . . . . . . 85
The Rural Settlements in Dacia Traiana . . . . . . . 88
Rural Farms (villae rusticae) . . . . . . . 92
Cemeteries and Funeral Rites . . . . . . . 95
The Instriptions of the Roman Period in Trajan's Dacia . . . . . . . 106
vii
THE FOURTH CENTURY A.D. IN TRANSYLVANIA . . . . . . . 107
The Former Roman Towns . . . . . . . 108
The Western Group of Settlements . . . . . . . 112
Non-Roman Settlements and Tombs in Transylvania from the Mid-Third to End of the Fourth Century . . . . . . . 114
The Cemetery from the Fourth and Fifth Centuries A.D. at Bratei . . . . . . . 115
The Černjachov-Sîntana de Mureş Culture . . . . . . . 117
The Roman Coins from 275 to 395 A.D. Found in Transylvania . . . . . . . 121
Finds of Single Coins . . . . . . . 123
The Hoards of Coins . . . . . . . 124
Christianity in Transylvania in the Fourth to Seventh Centuries . . . . . . . 129
The Inscriptions . . . . . . . 132
The Donarium Found at Biertan . . . . . . . 133
THE FIFTH AND THE SEVENTH CENTURIES IN TRANSYLVANIA . . . . . . . 139
The Old Germanic Peoples . . . . . . . 139
The Goths . . . . . . . 140
The Gepidae . . . . . . . 141
THE HUNS . . . . . . . 147
CEMETERIES IN TRANSYLVANIA FROM THE SIXTH TO NINTH CENTURIES . . . . . . . 148
The Avars . . . . . . . 148
THE APPEARANCE OF THE SLAVS IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN . . . . . . . 151
Archaeological Remnants of the Slavs in Transylvania . . . . . . . 154
The Extension of the Theory of Romanization to Territories Beyond Roman Dacia . . . . . . . 157
The Assumed Romanization in Muntenia . . . . . . . 158
The Assumed Romanization in Moldavia . . . . . . . 160
Theories About the Material Culture in the First Millenium in the Territory of Romania . . . . . . . 174
THE CARPATHIAN BASIN IN THE NINTH TO ELEVENTH CENTURIES . . . . . . . 176
The Hungarian Conquest . . . . . . . 176
The Bulgars . . . . . . . 179
viii
The Theory of the Dual Hungarian Conquest . . . . . . . 182
The Székelys (Szeklers) . . . . . . . 184
The Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós 185
The Bijelo Brdo Culture . . . . . . . 187
Fortifications of the Tenth to Twelfth Centuries in Transylvania. Doboka . . . . . . . 188
III. LINGUISTICS
THE ROMANIAN LANGUAGE . . . . . . . 191
The Testimony of Language . . . . . . . 191
Language Community. The Apennino-Balkan Group of Romance Languages . . . . . . . 195
Danubian Latin . . . . . . . 197
The Characteristics of East Latin . . . . . . . 198
Late Latin . . . . . . . 202
The Changes of Late Latin Continued in Romanian . . . . . . . 203
Late Latin Characteristics Not Found in Romanian . . . . . . . 207
The Relationship of the Territory of Former Dacia Traiana to the Roman Provinces . . . . . . . 209
THE PROBLEM OF THE ETHNO-LINGUISTIC SUBSTRATUM . . . . . . . 211
Ancient Indo-European Elements in Romanian . . . . . . . 211
The pre-Roman Languages of Southeastern Europe . . . . . . . 212
The "Thraco-Dacian" Linguistic Data . . . . . . . 214
The Problem of the Dacian Elements in Romanian . . . . . . . 218
A Comparison of the pre-Roman Lexical Elements in Romanian with Thracian and Dacian Words . . . . . . . 219
The Origin of Albanian . . . . . . . 223
The Relationship of the Substratum of Romanian to Albanian . . . . . . . 226
The pre-Latin Lexical Elements in the Romanian Language . . . . . . . 228
A Comparison of Two Groups of Words: Those with and Those Without an Albanian Counterpart . . . . . . . 242
Theories Based on the Distribution of the Assumed Substratum Words Among the Romanian Dialects . . . . . . . 245
Albanian-Romanian Contacts in the Late Latin Period . . . . . . . 249
Common Romanian. The Early Slavic Influence . . . . . . . 249
The Development of Dialects . . . . . . . 250
ix
THE ROMANIAN LINGUISTIC LITERATURE . . . . . . . 252
About the Relationship of Latin to Gothic and Its Assumed Relevance to the Romanian Language . . . . . . . 260
The Inherited Latin Words in Romanian . . . . . . . 268
THE THEORY OF THE "CORE REGIONS" (KERNGEBIETE) OF THE ROMANIAN LANGUAGE . . . . . . . 272
IV. GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES
Theories About Early Romanian Geographical Names . . . . . . . 291
The Preservation of the Slavic Nasal Vowels . . . . . . . 292
Romanian Geographical Names Borrowed Directly from Slavs . . . . . . . 297
Romanian Geographical Names Assumed to Be Older Than the Hungarian Toponymy . . . . . . . 301
PLACE NAMES . . . . . . . 309
The Romanian Place Names . . . . . . . 309
The Names of Rivers in Romania . . . . . . . 317
Place Names of Slavic Origin in Transylvania . . . . . . . 320
The Slavic Elements of the Romanian Language . . . . . . . 323
The Geographical Names of Slavic Origin . . . . . . . 325
Hungarian Geographical (Place) Names . . . . . . . 329
German (Transylvanian Saxon) Place Names . . . . . . . 332
Geographical Names in the Transylvanian Area of the Carpathian Basin in the 12th to 13th Centuries . . . . . . . 333
The name of Transylvania . . . . . . . 335
APPENDICES
Notes . . . . . . . 337
Selected Bibliography . . . . . . . 399
Name Index . . . . . . . 421
Gazetteer . . . . . . . 431
Subject Index . . . . . . . 438